Court rejects further petition contesting Tinubu’s victory

Another petition by the Action Peoples Party (APP) to overturn Bola Tinubu’s election as president-elect of Nigeria was dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja on Wednesday.

The Action Alliance (AA), which had filed a petition challenging Mr. Tinubu’s victory, had on Monday had its case dismissed by a five-member court panel presided over by Haruna Tsammani.

Following INEC’s announcement that Mr. Tinubu had won the election, five different petitions were filed to contest his victory. Mr. Tinubu ran for president on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Political parties and their candidates, including Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, were among the petitioners. They complained about how the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) handled the election.

They requested, among other things, that the court declare Mr. Tinubu’s victory invalid and order a new election.

However, during the proceedings on Wednesday, APP’s attorney, Obed Agu, told the court that he had filed a notice of withdrawal of the petition on May 9.

“We are requesting that this court grant us permission to withdraw the petition we filed on March 19.”

“As well as an order striking out or dismissing the petition, same having been withdrawn,” the attorney said.

Mr. Agu used Sections 29(1), 29(2), and 29(3) of the Schedule for Election Petitions as justification for dismissing the petition.

He withheld the explanation for the party’s about-face.

Nnadi Osita, the APP’s presidential candidate, received 12,839 votes, a tiny fraction of Mr. Tinubu’s 8.8 million votes.

Its 19 March petition was based, among other things, on the claim that Mr. Tinubu “corruptly induced” election officials at local government and state collation centers in “Kano, Kaduna, Imo, Rivers, Kebbi, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun, Kogi and Kwara states” in order to skew the results of the presidential election in his favor.

According to the party, Mr. Tinubu had “fictitious figures ascribed to him,” which gave him a significant advantage across the board.

Ruling

In a short ruling, the court dismissed the petition.

“Having listened to all the parties, we are satisfied that there is no collusion. The petition having been withdrawn, it is hereby dismissed,” Mr Tsammani said.

Tinubu is pleased with the petition’s withdrawal

Wole Olanipenkun, counsel for Mr. Tinubu, is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and did not raise any issues with the APP’s request to withdraw the petition.

In the hopes that more will follow, we want to congratulate them. My Lords, we are not asking for money,” Mr. Olanipenkun said, to the amusement of the other attorneys present in the crowded courtroom.

In a similar vein, Lateef Fagemi, a SAN and APC’s legal representative, did not object to the petition’s withdrawal.

Mr. Fagbemi urged additional litigants to follow the AA and APP’s guidelines and withdraw their complaints, including Atiku and Mr. Obi.

“The petitioners deserve praise for acting morally. Let those who haven’t do it right away, Mr. Fagbemi said.

The petition’s withdrawal was not contested by INEC’s attorney, Abubakar Mahmoud.

After the APP withdrew its petition on Wednesday, Mr. Tinubu and his party now have three cases to litigate.

In addition to the two more well-known cases brought by the PDP and Labour Party, Mr. Tinubu is also dealing with the third case brought by the All Peoples Movement (APM).

APM’s petition requested that Atiku Abubakar, who finished second in the election, be recognized as the new president by the Presidential Election Petition Court.

The APM, whose candidate for president, Chichi Ojei, received 25,961 votes, claimed that Mr. Tinubu was improperly sponsored by the APC by putting Kashim Shettima forward as a vice presidential candidate.

As a “placeholder” for the actual vice presidential candidate, who would later be Mr. Shettima, Mr. Tinubu chose Ibrahim Masari, a politician from President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state of Katsina, in June 2022 when he submitted his presidential nomination form to INEC.

The petitioner charged Mr. Shettima with “double nominations” after learning that he had been chosen by the APC as both its senatorial candidate for Borno Central District and later as the vice-presidential candidate for the elections on February 25.